Monday, June 6, 2016

For over 500 years native peoples in the Americas have
fought for their homes against people from far away lands. Now, in Alberta,
Canada, they are fighting for their homes against a gooey, black substance that
sits underground: the oil sands.

The Athabasca oil sands
are large deposits of bitumen or extremely heavy crude oil, located in
northeastern Alberta near the 1971-81 boomtown of Fort McMurray. They consist
of a mixture of crude bitumen (a semi-solid rock-like form of crude oil),
silica sand, clay minerals and water—what some people consider to be “the
bottom of the barrel.”

The Athabasca deposit, the largest known reservoir of crude
bitumen in the world, covers an area about 54,000 square miles (about the size
of the state of Florida), which is characterized by boreal forest and muskeg
(peat bogs). The International
Energy Agency estimates economically recoverable reserves to be 178 billion
barrels or 10 percent of the 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen in-place. These
reserves are the third largest reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia and the
Orinoco Belt in Venezuela.

Oil produced from bitumen sands is often referred to as
“unconventional oil” or “crude bitumen,” to distinguish it from liquid
hydrocarbons produced from traditional oil wells, according to the Canadian
Association of Petroleum Producers. Crude bitumen is a thick, sticky form
of crude oil, so heavy that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with
lighter hydrocarbons such as light crude oil or natural-gas condensate. At room
temperature, it is much like cold molasses.

“The Canadian government has failed in its duty to consult
us,” said Lameman. “It has leased out land to every major oil company.
There is an urgent need for the government to recognize the land
rights of indigenous people who developed their own laws and practices
thousands of years ago.”

On May 14, 2008, the Beaver Lake Cree
released their Kétuskéno
Declaration asserting their role as caretakers
of their traditional territories and started a legal action to: a) enforce
recognition of their Constitutionally protected rights to hunt, trap and fish,
and b) protect the ecological integrity of their territories.

“They made their law. The companies come to our land without
our consent. We have treaty rights. We can't be economic hostages in a game of
roulette where someone always loses. For us, it's our next seven generations
who lose.”

The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is suffering from significant
changes on its land like major migrations of wildlife, which in turn affect the
nation's food supply, said Lameman. Many animals are contaminated. Caribou are
dying or diseased and less than 300 are still alive. Dear meat is green. Traces
of arsenic in moose are 450 times higher than normal. Fish and waterfowl are
high in mercury and often found with tumors. The people who eat this game are
getting cancer and dying. Others just get sick, like Lameman's son who has
nosebleeds and her niece who has asthma attacks. The young feel hopeless about
the future. One year, there were five suicides in Lameman's band of 1200.

“The old people remember when they could drink pure water
from the rivers and lakes, but now that water is disappearing or it's polluted
from these extreme resource extractions,” she said. “As a woman raised by my
aunties, uncles, grandma and old people, I learned to be responsible to the
water because it was considered a gift, and we had the responsibility to
protect it. We carry life in water. It connects all of us. I also have the
understanding that Mother Earth is our grocery store as it provides all the
things we need to survive.”

In addition to the oil wells, which take up one hectare
(2.47 acres) of habitat loss, are the processing plants or SAGDs (Steam
Assisted Gravity Drainage), which is an enhanced oil recovery technology for
producing this heavy crude oil and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam
stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells is drilled into the oil
reservoir, one a few meters above the other. High pressure steam is
continuously injected into the upper wellbore to heat the oil and reduce its
viscosity, thus causing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore where
it is pumped out. The SAGD plants occupy 400,000 hectares or nearly one million
acres of deforested land.

“SAGD leaves a larger environmental footprint than open-pit
mining because it also requires technical support roads and infrastructure,”
said Lameman. “It is impossible for wildlife to live in this kind of
environment.”

Deforestation has occurred throughout these lands and that
includes making additional space for natural gas extraction, including
fracking. Taking natural gas requires the use of dangerous chemicals and heat
injection passing through a series of pipes.

Then Lameman showed the audience a map of the network of
pipes with little black dots indicating places where there were spills. The map
was nearly covered with black dots.

“In Michigan [whose gasoline comes from the oil sands] it is
believed that this oil should pass through thicker pipes,” said Lameman. “In
Alberta, we have a new kind of pipe that allows the oil to flow through,
however, eventually these pipes will leak.”

Nevertheless, so far it does not appear that the protection
of either the environment or the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's treaty rights will
get in the way of economics.

The oil sands are a lucrative investment in energy
production. They provide about 170 billion barrels of oil, or about 13 percent
of total global oil reserves, according to Alberta’s Oil Sands,
a government website. Nearly 2 million barrels of crude were produced every day
in 2011, and the energy sector (oil and gas mining) accounted for over 22
percent of Alberta's GDP in 2012. As of July 2013, there were 114 active oil
sands projects in Alberta. Of these, six were producing mining projects (three
more are under application); the remaining projects used various in-situ
recovery methods.

The benefits of the oil
sands to Albertans is unmistakable. In 2012, approximately 121,500 people
were employed. Royalties from the oil sands were $3.56 billion in 2012-13,
which helps fund many public services. According to the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI),
Alberta can expect $350 billion in royalties and $122 billion in provincial and
municipal tax revenue over the next 25 years.

The oil sands also affect the jobs of 112,500 people across
Canada outside the province of Alberta, which is expected to grow to more than
500,000 jobs over the next 25 years in six broad sectors: professional
services, oilfield services, manufacturing, wholesale trade, financial services
and transportation.

Alberta's economy has vastly improved with exports of goods
rising about 50 percent from 2002 to 2012 to $95 billion, which includes almost
$68 billion in energy exports. Alberta businesses also have the lowest tax
regime in Canada where they do not pay general sales taxes, capital taxes or
payroll taxes. The general corporate tax rate is 10 percent, and the small
business tax rate is three percent. Alberta also has the lowest gasoline tax
among the provinces.

About 10 percent of the oil sands workforce is comprised of
indigenous peoples. In 2011, the value of contracts between oil sands companies
and indigenous companies was over $1 billion.

However, as lucrative an economic venture the oil sands are
for Canada, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation is left out and suffering social,
environmental and spiritual damage. As a result, in 2008, the Nation launched Treaty
Rights litigation against the Canadian government, claiming that the
19,000+ fossil fuel projects in their territory violate their treaty rights and
threaten to destroy their way of life by polluting and fragmenting the land and
water that have sustained them for centuries.

“This is about the air that we breathe and the water that we
drink,” said Lameman. “No matter your race, color or creed, this challenge is
about you. The government fought hard to have our case thrown out of court
because the legal precedents weigh heavily against them. Now, with a judgment
that this will go to trial, the government hopes we'll be defeated either by
the cost of the litigation or by the time it takes to gather the necessary
resources to get this case in front of the judge before the health of our land
is irreversible.”

Lameman also referred to Article 32 of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which was
meant to determine and develop strategies for the use of native people's lands.
It was adopted on Thursday, September 13, 2007, by a majority of 144 states in
favor and 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United
States).

As a General Assembly Declaration, it is not a legally
binding instrument under international law, cites a UN press release, but it
does “represent the dynamic development of international legal norms, and it
reflects the commitment of the UN's member states to move in certain
directions.” The UN describes UNDRIP as setting “an important standard for the
treatment of indigenous peoples that will undoubtedly be a significant tool
toward eliminating human rights violations against the planet's 370 million
indigenous peoples and assisting them in combatting discrimination and
marginalization.”

UNDRIP codifies “indigenous historical grievances,
contemporary challenges and socio-economic, political and cultural aspirations,”
and it is a “culmination of generations-long efforts by indigenous
organizations to get international attention, to secure recognition for their
aspirations, and to generate support for their political agendas.” Ken Coates,
Canada research chair and faculty member at the University of Saskatchewan,
argues that UNDRIP resonates powerfully with indigenous peoples, while national
governments have not yet fully understood its impact.

Lameman's talk was sponsored by the Wege Foundation. Founded in 1967 by
Peter M. Wege, son of Peter Martin Wege, who started what is now Steelcase,
Inc. The Wege Foundation focuses on funding good works that enhance the lives
of the people and preserves the health of the environment in West Michigan. The
Wege Foundation's Five Pillars, or areas of interest include: education,
environment, arts and culture, health care and human services.

Recently recognized with a national award no other WMU student
filmmaker has achieved, the film showcases Simon's quest to overcome,
through his craft, the challenges of cerebral palsy. At the same time,
it showcases Billings' talent for storytelling.

As a youth, cruelly and frequently teased because of his condition
and treated in school as though he had an intellectual impairment, Simon
concluded that life wasn’t worth living—until he discovered his
artistic talent."That kept me positive all the time. That really changed me," he explains in Billings' film. "Art is what makes me, me."The film captures Simon layering canvas with paint in studio at WMU,
at times using to artistic advantage the spasticity of his hands and
fingers caused by cerebral palsy.Billings recognized the beauty and inspiration of Simon's life
experiences after the two met at a student organization's Bible study. A
storyteller in multiple mediums, she initially wrote about her peer for
an English class assignment, but knew she also wanted to capture him on
film."'Painting Dreams' is about an inspirational, kind-hearted, motivated
individual who does not look at his cerebral palsy as a setback, but
rather as a reason to be even more motivated in pursing his dreams,"
says Billings, a senior from Saginaw, Michigan, who is studying film,
video and media studies at WMU."Simon continues to break the stereotypes of college students with
disabilities, and is living testimony that nothing is impossible. And,
most importantly, he illustrates what it means to never, never give up,"
she says.

Finding the beauty in truth

Billings enjoys creating documentary films because she's moved by the
real-life experiences of others and the beauty of their truth."Films are like visual books," she says. "I want to share those
visions and those stories with the world. There is so much beauty in
truth, and I want to capture that beauty in my documentaries."

In February, her hard work earned special recognition. "Painting
Dreams" received an honorable mention in the Broadcast Education
Association’s Festival of Media Arts.

The competitive festival is open
to individual BEA faculty and student members, and it witnessed more
than 1,500 entries this year. Prizes were awarded in April during BEA's
annual convention and festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"I never imagined getting a national award so early in my career,"
Billings says. "The BEA film competition is extremely competitive, and I
am honored to be the first to receive an award in WMU history! Not only
is this validation that I am definitely pursing a career that I was
meant for, but it also gives me the motivation to keep advancing my
skills in documentary filmmaking."

Dr. Jennifer A. Machiorlatti, professor of
communication and Billings' mentor, says that by pursuing documentary
filmmaking, the undergraduate is on a path not many students choose.

"It's a very specialized profession that certainly doesn't have the
income potential of broadcast or fiction feature films," Machiorlatti
says. "But documentary educates, informs, uplifts and gets people
involved with their communities. These films change lives, and Tirrea is
already well on her way to becoming a talented storyteller and
community activist."

After receiving her diploma from WMU next December, Billings plans to
seek a graduate degree in documentary filmmaking and journalism from
DePaul University in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Simon also plans on attending graduate school where he
will study to be an art professor or an art therapist with an emphasis
in painting.